Hard Decisions on Hardware
Is your PC on a go-slow? Or perhaps your laptop is lagging? It may well be time for an upgrade!
Here we help you choose the best value solution and give advice on how and when you should make the move.
Windows 7’s limited future
With support for Windows 7 being withdrawn on 14th Jan 2020, what happens to your trusty operating system now? We explain all here.
The expensive Post-It note
How can the innocent post-it note end up costing you a fortune? Find out more and make sure you don’t let that happen to you & your business!
Getting Fit with Gadgets
From new-fangled exercise equipment to the latest wearable technology, find out more about the many aids to help us trim down and tone up for Summer.
Making the Most of Technology on the Move
Whether you’re on the road with work or trying to work whilst on a road-trip, we have several hints and tips to make your travel with technology easier.
Stop using the same password everywhere
I have written plenty about passwords over the last few years but I still have people happily telling me they use the same, single password for everything – a fact only made worse when the follow up comment is along the lines of, “..and I can’t be done with complex passwords.” Good passwords are essential….
Good things – & High PC Performance! – come in Small Packages
As Technology advances, the equipment we are able to offer is getting more and more compact. Here we discuss the benefits of investing in smaller PCs.
Save Time with Key Keyboard Shortcuts
Short on time? Always looking to work efficiently & most productively? Check out our handy Infographic showing the key Keyboard Shortcuts to help!
Spring into Action – Clean out your PC’s Easter (Dust) Bunnies!
When was the last time you cleaned your PC? Did you know that dust bunnies can reduce its performance? We give you top tips on keeping your PC dust-free.
Windows 7 and Chrome vulnerability
Security analysts have discovered a vulnerability with Chrome running on Windows 7 machines. Anyone using the Chrome browser should ensure that he or she is using the latest version of Chrome. More information on the vulnerability can be found here The Chrome browser can be updated by clicking the three-dot button to the right of…
Remote working?…’snow problem’
A quick look out through the window this morning confirmed the overnight arrival of the forecast snow. In previous years the first arrival of snow has brought with it a number of calls from users requiring remote access to the network, emails configured on external devices, telephone numbers redirected and voicemail greetings amended. For many…
#DryJanuary, #Veganuary or #DigitalDetox anyone?
Welcome to 2019 and with the start of a fresh year come the many promises of a “New Year, New Me”. Thanks to social media and its hashtags it is easy for everyone to find a bandwagon to jump on – For those looking to give their livers a break after an indulgent festive period…
Hi-Tech Memories: Lost & Found
It all started when we had a power cut…my alarm didn’t go off…and the next thing I knew it was 8am…! We were in a panic, we were in a rush, kids dressed, quick breakfast, no coffee, brush teeth, grab bags…and we’re out of the door…! I’m off to a meeting at an office I’ve…
Stolen password email scam
“Your account has been compromised and, to prove it, here is your password.” In recent weeks we have taken a number of calls from users who have received emails which, in amongst whatever scam is being run, try to offer up some validity to the claims by presenting a user with his or her password….
A Picture Paints a Thousand Words – 3 Easy Ways to Snap a Screenshot
“The screen says, something, something, error, random numbers” “OK, I’m going to need to see a copy of that error, could you send me a screenshot please?” “I don’t know how, please help!” This is a situation we often come across. Passing along screenshots is simple enough but if you don’t know how to then…
Christmas Compassion, Cookies & Seasonal Shopping Scams
With twinkly lights going up, shops stocking up on mince pies and the first of the mulled wine being sampled, it’s beginning to feel a little like Christmas..! And no doubt lots of you are much more organised than us and have even actually started Christmas shopping already! Well, for those of you turning your thoughts to…
Behind-the-Scenes Support Gives you Peace of Mind
We are here to support you with any ad hoc IT issues whenever you need us – on the phone or on-site. We also provide behind-the-scenes support in order to ensure all IT systems are running smoothly and resolve any issues as they occur. In early 2017 we took on a new client who was unhappy with both the reliability of their network and…
Backup and beyond – the business continuity you always wanted but couldn’t afford
I’m not quite old enough to have worked with spools of half inch tape but magnetic tape was certainly the go-to medium for data backup on the first networks I managed. Backup solutions have changed considerably over the years – where we once talked about data backups we now talk about disaster recovery and business…
Smile, you’re on Camera!
CCTV systems have been available for a long time whether providing monitoring, safety or security. In keeping with other areas of technology (telephony, audio-visual, etc.) selecting camera solutions which integrate with the network broadens the functionality with multiple points of access on site or remotely, email notification of activity, etc. VCI is able to help…
Performance rises with Desk Risers
Desk risers come in many shapes and sizes. The more basic models simply lift the monitor or laptop off your desk, helping to improve posture and clear your work area, whilst other more substantial desk risers are installed to convert a sitting desk to a standing desk. Sit-stand desks, commonly referred to as “standing desks”,…
The Value of both the Team and the Individual
We recently saw the retirement of opening batsman and former England Cricket Captain Alastair Cook who bowed out in the best possible way with a determined and pivotal personal contribution to the team’s success. In a fairy tale, victorious finish which included a century in his final innings, the last test match of the English summer…
Computer-Aided Learning in the Classroom
With the start of school for the autumn term and my children now tackling the challenges of year 2 and foundation, I’m continuously learning how computers are changing the educational experience within the classroom. It was recently announced in the weekly electronic newsletter – incidentally delivered via the ParentMail app on our phones – that…
Encryption: How to wish your data a safe journey
One of my defining memories of childhood holidays is the Tetris-like exercise of squeezing everything into the small family car (suitcases, rucksacks, travel games, sleeping bags, etc.) closely followed by the last minute checks. Are the passports packed, is the road atlas to hand (no sat-nav back then), last check of fuel, coolant, oil and…
5 Reasons to Outsource IT
When running a start-up or SME, we understand that there are so many things for you to focus on. Not only are you trying to perfect your product or service, you have to think about sales, investors, customer service and logistics, at the same time as building the right team. You may be a one-man…
Thoughts on Tech-Aided Travel
Having been lucky enough to enjoy a long weekend in Palma recently – a friend’s big birthday, incidentally, for which celebrations seem to be lasting the entire year! 😉 – I came to realise how much technology has eased the world of travel. Of course, booking flights online has always been fairly easy, with the…
A Night Out with Technology
We have recently talked about how technology can help improve your home-life or guide you to a sporting success. The entertainment industry is another area technology has touched, where clever uses for standard tech and cutting-edge advancements have created new, memorable, experiences for nights out you’ll never forget. The cinema. A classic night out for…
Happy GDPR Day – it will be alright
It’s finally here so, if nothing else, the volume of privacy policies arriving by email is hopefully about to drop off. Small business owners should take some comfort from the words of the UK’s information commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, who was interviewed on BBC Radio 4. “Today is not a deadline. What we’re looking for is…
Right from the Start – Benefiting from Experience
The trouble with learning from experience is that the lesson is delivered just after the knowledge is required. This, of course, is one of the reasons we turn to others to benefit from the broader, collective experiences whether that be friends and colleagues or suppliers and consultants to a business. It is far from unusual…
Detect & Respond to Data Breaches in line with GDPR
Following on from our recent articles ‘Don’t be Spooked by GDPR!’ and ‘Ensure GDPR compliance with VCI Systems’, in which we encouraged you to 1. Be Aware, 2. Prepare and 3. Protect your data, here we tell you about the final two steps in the process of becoming GDPR compliant. 4. Detect a Data Breach…
Marathon Strides in Sports Technology
Having only just managed to limp around the Reading half marathon last year, I have the greatest respect for all those training for the London marathon and wish them all the best of luck. I also have a newfound understanding and admiration for just how much technology can help support and motivate you during those tougher…
Spring Dusting (of snow!)
Although the scene from my window currently tells a different story we’re but a few short days away from the longer evenings and, as from today, officially into spring. Whilst this year spring has brought with it a dusting of snow it more traditionally welcomes the eponymous spring clean. If you’re stuck inside waiting on…
Spotting fake emails – a video guide
There are several tell-tale signs to help you spot a spam email! Below, the much-discussed topic of fake and harmful emails gets the video treatment with a quick look at how to spot the tell-tale signs quickly and easily. Or the written version is here: 5 Clues to an Erroneous Email – VCI Systems If…
Improve communications with VoIP
For any business, saving money and improving communications are both good goals to have – and VoIP allows you to combine the two. VCI persevered with a ‘traditional’ phone system fed by 4 ISDN channels for many years mainly because we needed to retain the ISDN connection as a dial out option for a client…
Ensure GDPR Compliance & Data Protection
Following on from our recent article ‘Don’t be Spooked by GDPR!’, in which we encouraged you to 1. Be Aware and 2. Prepare for GDPR, here we tell you about the next step in the process of becoming GDPR compliant. 3. Protect Once you know where you hold personal data, you need to be sure…
Past Words on Passwords
Back in late 2013 I wrote a series of articles regarding passwords which covered why we need them (amazingly still a question I was having to answer on occasions), how one can arrive at a good password, and how to keep it memorable without using the same password everywhere. One of my less fashionable statements…
Self Help: Improve your Outlook…
For most a New Year’s Resolution is all about self-improvement and if you want to keep that going long into the year you don’t need to look much further than your office PC. Small changes and new habits can soon add up and have a massive effect on how easy it is for you to…
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
A white Christmas was definitely on the cards when snow arrived just in time for this year’s Virginia Water Santa Run in support of Sebastian’s Action Trust. Unfortunately it was deemed too dangerous for the runners and was cancelled at the last minute so no pictures of me dressed as Santa this year. Charlotte, however,…
Don’t be spooked by GDPR – Be Aware & Prepare for changes in Data Protection Regulations
With the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) coming into force on 25th May 2018, we take a look at the initial strides you can take in ensuring your data and IT systems will be fully compliant. The changes in regulations may seem a little daunting but hopefully, as with everything, breaking them down into more…
At Home with Technology – How Alexa, IFTTT & Harmony Hub can work for you!
It is just over a year since Amazon introduced Alexa to our lives. She wasn’t the first digital assistant to enter the home but thanks to Amazon’s heavy marketing and low prices she is arguably the most prolific. Homes up and down the country can be heard asking Alexa for jokes or simple reminders but…
Keep your kids safe online
As technology continues to advance at a sometimes terrifying pace, keeping up-to-date with what our children are doing online can be a daunting prospect, especially as some of us parents feel that our children know more about the internet than we do! Whatever the age of your children, here are a few technical hints and…
Performance gains via Solid-State Disk (SSD)
Does your PC take an age to start up in the morning? Do you dread rebooting your PC knowing you’ll have about half an hour or so of sluggish behaviour to sit through? If it has got to the stage where you’re considering a replacement, and a fast start-up time is important, it may be…
A quick pat on the back
This may read as a self-congratulatory post but I simply want to illustrate that we do practise what we preach. I received the following email today which purported to come from a domain registration company. Regular readers of our site will know that I am instantly suspicious of a mail with the salutation “Dear customer” rather than…
Cocktails, Coasts and…Cookies?
Lucky enough to have taken your holiday this year or are you still searching for a last minute bargain? Did you know your browsing habits could affect the price you pay? Every time you visit a site Cookies are created to track and monitor your movement around the web. You will all be familiar with…
Pitfalls of social media
Following on from my colleague’s article on the many benefits of Facebook for keeping in touch with friends and family, I thought I’d add a few cautionary notes to help keep you safe. This can also cut down the amount of clutter on our Facebook feeds so we all get to see more of the stuff…
Celebrating 200 years of the bike
Did you know it’s been 200 years since the first bike was invented? To celebrate this momentous occasion, Pete and I jumped on our bikes (no bone-shakers in sight, thankfully!) on 11th June to ride 30 miles in support of Tour de Purley and the local Purley Primary School. Take a look here at some of…
Living with Facebook
I recently got a notification from Facebook informing me I’ve been a member for 10 years. In typical Facebook fashion it was a cutesy video that played through some select highlights from the last decade. After watching it through and laughing at some forgotten photos it got me thinking just how big a part of…
The little Dutch boy
Many of you will be familiar with the story of the Dutch boy who plugged a tiny leak in the dyke with his finger. Passers by raised the alarm and help came in the form of those who could fix the hole and avoid a disaster. We can easily relate this to the recent, well-publicised…
Are you sitting comfortably?
“Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin.” People of a certain age may well recognise this as the introduction to “Listen with mother”, a radio program of stories, songs and nursery rhymes for a captivated pre-school audience. The theme tune, a gentle piano duet (Lullaby from Gabriel Fauré’s “Dolly Suite” for those that want to…
Attention to detail……one person’s pedantry is another person’s saviour
My elder son had an English test at school yesterday. The comprehension section included a passage of text about a poisonous snake. Before answering the questions, he crossed through the word “poisonous” and above it wrote “venomous”. Yesterday was clearly the day for such scrutiny as I also had a client contact me with suspicions regarding…
Festive greetings from VCI
As we close in on the end of 2016 we can once again look forward to the Christmas break, perhaps more time with family and friends and, to the best of our abilities, away from the routine of our working lives. We can also take the chance to count our blessings and consider the challenges…
A Nightmare on Email Street….
Of all evenings for this to happen, Halloween….. The boss is supposed to be on holiday but now he’s mailing you to insist you get some urgent payments made. What to do…? The internet seems to be running slowly, the noise from the kettle boiling sounds just a little too loud and now a black…
“Lovely Spam, Wonderful Spam!”
As discussed in my previous article, there seems to be an increasing chance of genuine email getting quarantined by spam filtering tools as the battle to protect against unwanted or harmful content continues. When investigating a ‘lost’ outbound email we often arrive at the point where we can prove an email arrived to the recipient’s…
What is going on with my emails?
A quote often attributed to George Bernard Shaw observed that, “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” Scholars may disagree on the original author but the sentiment applies well in the modern world. Through the opening months of 2016 I think I have spent more time investigating errant…
There’s more bad news, some good news….and no change in topic.
2016 already looks to be the year of Ransomware. Scan any technical news publications over the last quarter and you will see councils, hospitals, at least one (US) police department and various other high profile establishments who have made the news having fallen victim to a ransomware attack. Browse back through recent articles on our…
Life on the Edge….or IE11 for W7 and W8 users
From 12th January 2016, Microsoft is no longer offering support for any versions of Internet Explorer other than the latest v11 (for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1) or Edge for Windows 10 (though IE11 remains an installed option). In Microsoft’s own words, “Internet Explorer 11 offers improved security, increased performance, better backward compatibility, and support…
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas
…and happy new year. The festive period provides an opportunity to pause and reflect on the year gone by and the year ahead – perhaps to set ourselves new goals and challenges in our personal and working lives. It can also be a time to reflect upon the lives of those around us, colleagues, families,…
Another spoof email……
If you have read previous posts on our news section here you will be both familiar and wise to spoof emails but here is another quick reminder. A quick glance at the purported sender and hovering over the link to see the destination provides all the confirmation you need to make your next mouse click…
Windows 10….or WinDon’t just yet?
By now you are probably familiar with the Windows 10 free upgrade notification popping up in the task bar on a regular basis and may be wondering what to do. Having had the privilege of attending Microsoft’s official UK Launch event for Windows 10 I can confirm that there are some exciting times ahead for…
“May contain nuts!”…….. Ransomware v backup (backup wins)
Having written about the dangers of attachments and spoof emails on several occasions (most recently here), my attention was drawn to an article on the BBC technology pages today regarding the ‘business model’ behind Ransomware malware products. The full BBC article is available here. I was interested to read how, contrary to anecdotal evidence published…
“May contain nuts!”…….. In an email world of attachments, remain detached.
Apologies if I am beginning to sound like a broken record but I find myself, once again, writing a short piece on bogus emails and the dangers that lie within. It’s too big and common a problem to ignore. Below is an image of an email I have seen today. 1 – nothing too suspicious…
“May contain nuts!”…….. What is your Movie Star name?
You’ve probably seen or even played the game passed on through social media. The title can be a little more, shall we say, ‘niche market’ compared with the generic “movie star” heading I’ve given but the game remains the same as does the risk it poses to your personal data. The game states that you take the…
New Year’s Resolutions…
Turkey sandwiches for packed lunch…..but only for a few more days. No more chocolates, ease back on the wine, dig out and dust off the old gym membership card. The new year brings with it the cathartic, slate-cleaning new year’s resolutions – a list full of good intentions, hope, and the promise of improvement. Might we…
“The lazy Phisherman”
I received the following email this afternoon (Friday 19th September….) From: Net Faxmashine [mailto:postmaster@docs-dig.com]Sent: 19 September 2014 13:53To: Robert CreechSubject: You have received a new fax message You have received a new fax. This fax was received by Fax Server.The fax has been downloaded to dropbox service (Google Inc). To view your fax message, please…
“May contain nuts!”…….. Navigating the internet (or “When and how to search”)
“At the roundabout, take the first exit”“In two more clicks you have reached ‘a’ destination…..(it might not be yours, and it might not be safe)” Imagine if your car Sat Nav picked a destination with only a tenuous link to the address you first entered, ending in the sort of area where you would never…
“We’re all doomed, doomed I tell ye”
Some of the recent media reporting of an imminent cyber attack on Blighty could have come straight from the mouth of Dad’s Army character Private Frazer, complete with rolling eyes. So what is all the excitement about? Well, call me an old sceptic <pause>, but this could just be a case of sensational journalism or,…
The Heartbleed Bug – do you need to act?
The latest concern regarding the safety of a cyber world has come in the form of the Heartbleed bug, the potential compromise of a system intended, ironically, to safeguard user data. The BBC has a good article outlining the flaw and surrounding issues – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-26954540 The headline of “Heartbleed Bug: Tech firms urge password reset”…
“May contain nuts!”…….. Passwords 101 – part 3
If we’ve travelled the “Password 101” journey together this far then we are hopefully in agreement that network passwords are a good thing, and you have some ideas regarding how to create them. Now we need to consider how we manage and maintain all those other passwords required by the various devices we use, the…
“May contain nuts!”…….. Passwords 101 – part 2
In our previous visit to passwords (Password 101 – Part 1) we looked at the need for the password in the office environment. This article delves a little deeper and focuses on network password generation. There is a popular saying that your password should be like your toothbrush, “Change it every three months and don’t…
“May contain nuts!”…….. Passwords 101 – part 1
Ah, the password…invaluable security tool, necessary evil, or simply the reason to have to call IT support before even starting the working day? The concept of a tool to help identify the individual is not new – we have placed our mark or signed documents for many a century – but the prevalence of passwords…
“May contain nuts!”……..If you believe that, I’ve got a bridge to sell you!
(“May contain nuts” – a series of short articles discussing familiar topics which we should all revisit once in a while) In the early 20th century two con-men, George C. Parker and William McCloundy, successfully ‘sold’ the Brooklyn Bridge to unwitting and, one assumes, wealthy tourists. There are other similar, perhaps apocryphal, stories and it…
“May contain nuts!”… Renewing your domain name
(“May contain nuts” – a series of short articles discussing familiar topics which we should all revisit once in a while) You have a website, and you have emails. You know enough to know that these are linked to the fact that you have a domain “yourcompany.co.uk” registered but, beyond that, it all works and…